Keynote Presentations

Denis Cousineau

Engaging Language Learners via Action-Oriented Tasks

Dimanche à 11h15/Sunday at 11:15am

In recent years, there has been a shift from learning “about” a language, to “living” a language. This shift in thinking is widely attributed to the Action-oriented Approach, which views learners as social agents who use language to communicate and accomplish meaningful tasks. This approach has influenced second language acquisition, whereby more emphasis is placed on oral communication and the need to build competencies so that the learner can successfully participate in authentic situations. Task-based learning provides a framework where the learner is a social agent engaged in specific domains (i.e, education situations, public life, work related situations and personal settings). When the Action-Oriented Approach is fully implemented, the learner is focused on learning the ‘how’ in relation to the ‘what’. Basically we plan, teach, and learn in order to meet the needs of our learners in authentic contexts. The goal is to help every learner gain the ability to drive the automobile and not necessarily become experts in auto-mechanics! The role of the teacher moves from being perceived as linguistic experts, who master all of the rules of a specific language, towards becoming designers of authentic situations by creating scenarios, understanding and explaining ‘actes de paroles’ or speech acts in relation to contexts and social situations. In this interactive keynote, we will discuss the advantages of designing and using action-oriented tasks so that our L2 students can become social agents and take responsibility for their language acquisition. You will leave with some theoretical knowledge of the research behind the action-oriented approach and some practical ideas that help support language acquisition that is meaningful and occurs in context with the purpose of developing and activating competencies required to complete the task.

FSL teacher attrition continues to grow across Canada. And and recruiting FSL teachers is a goal of many school boards/districts. Do you sometimes feel like its a problem you can’t address? During this keynote we will take a look at the reasons why French teachers are leaving the program and begin to tackle this situation with some practical, easy to implement ideas to recruit FSL teachers.

Monday, April 27th at 9:15am / Lundi à 9h15

Supporting the French speaking teachers when you don’t speak French: Ideas for principals that work!

You’ve been hired to work in a school with a French Immersion pathway, but you don’t speak French! No worries! Join me for a session that reveals practical resources that have been created to support principals who may not speak french but want to be FSL Champions.

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This Event Registration is provided by the British Columbia Language Coodination Association.